Hunting in Wartime

I met a third participant of the Vietnam War documentary Hunting in Wartime this weekend.  Royal Hill.  I met him garage saling of all things.  Once you see this movie, you don’t forget the soldiers or their family members that participated in it.  I told him you don’t know me but thank you for participating in the movie.  It’s the most important movie of my life.  He spoke with me for another 15 or 20 minutes.  At first I think he was a little shy that someone recognized him from the movie, but as I spoke about the documentary and it’s effect on me, he warmed up to the conversation.  What I remember most is that he said after he returned from Vietnam, voting became his most important civic duty.  He said he studies every candidate closely to see which had the moral fortitude to do what was right. He doesn’t care what party they represent.   He said war should always be the very last option.  He talked about a recent movie on Iraq, Lone Survivor, which of course I haven’t seen.  He said he had a similar situation in Vietnam where a local kid saved his life and those in his platoon, and the kid was later killed and he still thinks about it. Although it’s not yet, apparently, a national treasure, the movie is playing here on KTOO TV and, I think, on  PBS stations across the country this coming Memorial Day Weekend, so I hope it will continue to draw a following and impact people like it has me.    If you happen to see this blog post, see if the movie is playing on your PBS station and try to be there to watch it.   It equals the PBS Vietnam series, in my opinion, because it’s as grass roots as it gets.

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